Venom 2: The Anti-Venom
by OptimusPhillip
Summary: When Eddie Brock got rid of the symbiote, he did it so he wouldn't hurt anyone. But when it bonds to another man and becomes animalistic, it does more harm than he could imagine. However there is a grain of salvation, for somehow, the traces of symbiote in his blood have changed and now he has the power to stop this creature, but it's not going down without a fight.
1. Chapter 1

(Note, this story takes place in the few years gap between Venom: Part 2 and The Amazing Spider-Man: Sins Past)

Two years before now, Edward Brock Jr. bonded with a polymer-based, symbiotic life form from the planet Gakaia and tried to kill the man who ruined his life, Peter Parker, despite him being one of the only friends he ever had. They later agreed that Peter would stay out of his life and Brock would stay out of his. However, the influence of the alien instilled an uncontrollable bloodlust, to which Brock was strongly opposed, but if he gets rid of it, he'll die as the suit sucked out vital hormones to survive. After years of deliberation, he decided that the possibility of committing cold-blood murder wasn't worth it, one life lost is fine if it saves countless others. So one day, he went to a rock concert at Central Park, preying on the symbiote's weakness for loud noises. After a few minutes, the suit became more malleable, after a few more, it was loosening its grip, finally, after a few more minutes, Brock could, agonizingly, tear it off, but his screams of pain were attracting some attention from spectators, and by the time he was unconscious, symbiote off, they called an ambulance.

Eddie Brock lay in a bed at the hospital, still unconscious. Peter and Mary Jane were visiting him.

"How is he, doc?" said Peter.

"Not very good." said the doctor, "His adrenaline and phenethylamine levels are dangerously low. We've been doing everything we can to replenish him, we've even been feeding him chocolate in the hopes of replacing the lost phenethylamine, but we didn't expect it to work very well. There's nothing we can do." MJ was crying.

"I think it's best that you leave." said the doctor, "We want Eddie to be as comfortable as possible."

"Okay." said Peter, but before he and his wife left, he whispered, "I'm sorry, Eddie. I'm sorry my actions ruined your life."

That same day, Central Park was visited by a couple men in uniform.

"Who the hell are you?" said the gatekeeper.

"I'm MacDonald Gargan, animal control." said the first man in uniform as he flashed his badge, "This is my partner, Farley Stillwell. We've received reports of a mild scorpion infestation on these premises, may we investigate?"

"Sure." the gatekeeper opened the gate, "I've heard these rumors, never occurred to me to have it checked out." Gargan searched the area, but during his sweep, he felt something stab the back of his leg. He turned and saw a black scorpion with a wide tail had stung him. He recognized the species as very deadly.

"Farley," he said over his radio communicator, "I've been stung. It appears to be a black fat-tailed scorpion."

"_That's not good._" said Stillwell, "_Where are you?_"

"I'm under the tall tree in the nearest corner to the entrance. Can you get here with the antivenom in time?"

"'_Fraid not. I'm pretty far from there._" While Mac was talking to Stillwell, he was being watched by the Venom symbiote. The symbiote recognized that he didn't have long to live. It wanted to ignore him, but was low on sustenance, and something about him made the symbiote feel strange, and before it knew it, the symbiote was starting to bond with him. However, something wasn't right, for it was beginning to take on animalistic characteristics. The new combination wanted to lash out and kill without any reason. It wanted to destroy, it wanted to kill. It didn't care about the consequences, it just wanted to do whatever it wanted. It broke out of the park and began a mad rampage.


	2. Chapter 2

For the next week, there were numerous reports of mutilated corpses being found throughout the city. Despite their best efforts, the police just couldn't understand what was doing this, for the mutilations were not made by any weapon known to them.

The police may wonder what was killing and mutilating these people, but Spider-Man soon lost reason to, for on one of his nighttime patrols, he heard a strange, yet somewhat familiar noise. When he went to investigate the alley from which the sound came, he saw a monstrous silhouette leaning over something. Spider-Man tried to be silent, but, while backing away in shock, he accidentally kicked a trash can, alerting the beast to his position. The creature turned around, revealing a face not unlike a disfigured form of Venom's face. When it stepped into plain view, other similarities between Venom and this became apparent, such as a large spider spanning the chest. There were some differences, however, such as a large scorpion-like tail on its back and white squares on the back of its hands.

The creature lumbered toward Spider-Man, clearly recognizing him, and with a layered, growling voice it said "You abandoned us!" as it tried clawing Spider-Man, who managed to dodge. The new Venom tried scratching Spider-Man with its tail, but he avoided the sharp point with only a small cut on his shoulder. It shot webs at Spider-Man from the white hand backs, but he dodged most of the balls of symbiote web. Spider-Man soon realized that there was no way he could defeat this creature tonight and retreated, making sure the monster didn't see him.

The next day, Peter Parker visited Eddie Brock at the hospital, who was now somewhat conscious, but not very.

"Eddie," said Peter, "I think the symbiote's behind the recent killing spree."

"Wouldn't surprise me one bit," said Eddie, "that thing's a monster." The scene cut to an unseen man observing the scene from a monitor in a shady room.

"_But the murderer is even more monstrous than you were. Do you have any idea on how I can stop it?_"

"_I'm afraid not, Peter. I'm sorry._"

"I believe now is where I come in." said the man. He got up, revealing himself to be heavily clothed (the face is still not shown on screen.)

That night around midnight, a man entered Eddie's hospital room, wearing a lot of layers. He pulled out a knife and wrapped Eddie's hand around it. After removing it, exposing the gash, he waited until he spotted a black particle in the blood. When he did, he pulled off one glove, exposing that underneath the other layers; a hand glowed dimly, and touched one, reviving it and turning it white. The newly revived symbiote oozed all over Brock's body while the mystery man left. Eventually his body was completely covered and he managed to get up and break out through the wall.


	3. Chapter 3

That same night, Scorpion-Venom (as he will be called) struck again, this time hiding in the bushes in Central Park, waiting for people to stroll by so he can kill them. What he didn't know was that there was someone waiting for him, a lone figure perched in a nearby tree, watching for him to strike. Eventually a woman walked by with her dog and Scorpion-Venom jumped out and attacked, queuing the man in the tree to jump out, revealing himself to be a white version of Venom with green eyeballs within the eye triangles, not unlike those on Scorpion-Venom.

"You shall not cause any more harm, Venom!" said the man in white in a layered voice.

"Says who?" said Scorpion-Venom.

"Says the Anti-Venom." Scorpion-Venom's newly named adversary punched him in the chest, sending him flying backward until he was stopped by a now shattered bench. Anti-Venom grabbed Scorpion-Venom by his neck and some of the white symbiote started to ooze over him, but Scorpion-Venom struck Anti-Venom with his tail. While Anti-Venom doubled over in pain, Scorpion-Venom left.

There was a lot of talk about the recent escape by Eddie Brock from his hospital room. Peter Parker, however, had the means to figure out what happened, for he was close friends with Brock. He called Eddie on his cellphone, half-expecting no one to answer, but was surprised when someone did pick up.

"_Hello?_" said Eddie.

"Eddie?" said Peter.

"_Of course it's me, Peter._"

"What happened last night?"

"_I'm still not sure about everything, but I know that there was a big change. I'll show you what I'm talking about later. Shall we say, 3:00 at the church bell tower?_"

"Umm, okay."

"_Great, I'll see you there._" Eddie hung up.

Spider-Man had not been in the bell tower since he abandoned the symbiote two years prior. He waited for Eddie to show up, but didn't wait for long as he met a reverse colored form of Venom. Spider-Man was shocked.

"No need to panic, Peter," said Anti-Venom, "it's just me, Eddie."

"Where did the new suit come from?" said Peter.

"That's the one think of which I am unsure, but all I know is that last night, this new symbiote bonded to me, and its thoughts seemed to indicate it was an altered form of the old symbiote. I escaped and went after the new Venom."

"How different is this new suit from the original?"

"A better question is how is it not? And the answer is that it has the same memories. It even said that it actually replaces the hormones the other one fed on."

"Wow."

"I know."

"Do you think you can stop him?"  
"Alas, while I am strong, he is also strong, perhaps even stronger than me."

"Then let me help you."

"You'd do that? Even after all I've done to you?"

"I'm not the unforgiving type; you should know that by now." Anti-Venom smiled before swinging off.


	4. Chapter 4

Mac Gargan had locked himself in his room after what the symbiote had been making him do for the past couple of days. He knew he couldn't stop it from doing what it did, as he had no control over its strange new instincts, so he tried his best to make sure that the monster made of him and the alien wouldn't come loose again. He hoped it would work even more once he felt the power of the symbiote flow through his veins. He hoped more when he felt the instincts of Scorpion-Venom emerge. However he hoped in vain, for the monster got through one of the boarded windows with a simple swipe of its tail.

"Eddie," said Spider-Man into an earpiece as he watched Scorpion-Venom mutilating a dead body (On film the mutilation would be implicit, we'd see Scorpion-Venom in the distance and hear a sort of ripping and shredding sound but that's it), "I have a visual."

"Copy that," said Anti-Venom over the radio, "what's your position?"

"On Fifth, a couple blocks down from Madison Square."

"Roger, that. On my way."

Sure enough, a few minutes later, Anti-Venom appeared just in time to stop Scorpion-Venom from catching another victim. The black beast jumped the white one, striking with his claws and tail, but suddenly it was caught by the webs of another individual from behind. He looked behind him and saw none other than Spider-Man.

"It was bad enough when the only person Venom wanted to hurt was me." said Spider-Man.

"You again!" said the monster before it lunged its tail at him. Spider-Man was able to move just enough that it didn't hit any vital areas, but something still wasn't quite right. His vision started to change, everything seemed reddish. He looked at his hands and saw them turning black. Anti-Venom saw the change as well, and rushed over to help him, but Scorpion-Venom got in his way. After a brief fight, Anti-Venom was able to subdue his new arch nemesis just long enough to get to Spider-Man. Upon close inspection it became obvious what was happening: the symbiote was possessing Spider-Man from the inside out. Anti-Venom knew he had to do something and fast. Quickly, he oozed part of his symbiote all over Spider-Man's body. When it came off, Spider-Man no longer had symbiote on or in him.

"Thanks, Eddie." he said.

"No problem," said Anti-Venom, "but we've still gotta stop this thing from hurting any more innocents."

"Right." said Spider-Man. He shot a web at Scorpion-Venom and tried to throw him, but Anti-Venom's purging must've also weakened his powers by removing some of the spider DNA. Luckily, Anti-Venom must've foreseen this side-effect and was prepared to fight without his assistance. After a brief fight, where the two symbiotic men both fought to exhaustion, Scorpion-Venom got away.

"Don't worry, Peter," said Anti-Venom, "your altered DNA should replenish itself in a couple days. You'll be up to full power in no time. Not that you'd want that, I remember that you wish that you'd never gotten those powers."

"That was a couple of years ago," said Spider-Man, "when I was still grieving about Gwen and blaming myself."

"Of course it was, I was kind of kidding."


	5. Chapter 5

"So how are we going to stop him?" said Peter at Eddie's house.

"Tough to say." said Brock, "I tried using my purging powers before, but he stopped me with his tail."

"Is there any way to avoid it?"  
"No, he's really quick with it."

"Any other options?"

"Hmm," Eddie said.

Meanwhile, Mac Gargan still struggled to maintain control, but it was really difficult. He was wearing ear muffs while playing bell tolls at full volume, but still he couldn't resist the alien's instincts and smashed the speakers.

_Listen_, thought Gargan, _you may be a mind-controlling mud stain from outer space, but this is my body and I will not let you use me for evil_.

_MacDonald Gargan_, came a voice from the back of Gargan's mind, _we did not intend to cause any harm, and in any case, your bold attempt at an assertion of dominance would be futile if we did._

_Didn't intend to do harm? Face it, Venom, you're nothing more than a bloodthirsty killing machine. Everyone you bond to ends up on a rampage._

_This has never happened to us. The only other time we wanted to kill was when we bonded to a host with a mutual hatred of Spider-Man._

_Then what's happening now?_

_We don't know._


End file.
